Members of the Keizer City Council will discuss recommended changes to the city charter at a work session Monday, June 8, at 6 p.m. The public is welcome to attend and be part of the discussions.
The recommendations come from a citizen task force that reviewed the charter, the city’s founding document, during the past six months. The council convened the task force with an eye toward removing a section that marginalizes LGBTQ+ residents.
The removal of the offending section, Section 44, is the major change recommended by the task force, but its members also found other ways to make the document more inclusive, such as using less gendered language.
Other recommendations include reordering some sections of the charter for clarity and making it easier to read and understand. While some larger changes were discussed, such as switching to electing city councilors by district or ranked-choice voting, not enough members of the task force voted to move forward on those matters.
You can view the existing language alongside the the proposed changes in the pdf below. Some sections appear out of order in this draft, but all the proposed changes are included.